advice re accounts

chocomonsta · 12 January 2019 at 3:09PM

Hi

I have a number of accounts with different banks and I am doing a bit of spring cleaning. I am checking in with you to see if I am missing a trick before I close a couple of accounts.

These are on my keep them list:

TSB, Santander, HSBC, Tesco, Bank of Scotland, F Direct, Nationwide, Halifax, Lloyds and HSBC. I am maximising all the decent reg savers (TSB, Santander, HSBC, F Direct, Lloyds and HSBC). I do the monthly money cycling to fund the accounts.

Is there any point in keeping:
Tesco, (need to find 3 D/D and cycle £750 to earn £7.50 monthly)
Bank of Scotland, (I need to find 2 DD to earn £6.25 monthly)
Halifax, this one - can I switch to Natwest to earn a switching bonus though I have already earned £125 Natwest switching bonus? I have 3 Halifax accounts but not worth it now to only earn £2 a month reward.

Appreciate any replies

gt94sss2 · 12 January 2019 at 3:21PM

chocomonsta wrote: »

Halifax, this one - can I switch to Natwest to earn a switching bonus though I have already earned £125 Natwest switching bonus?

No. The Natwest T&C exclude you from their current switching offer if you have claimed previously.

colsten · 12 January 2019 at 3:34PM

chocomonsta wrote: »

I am maximising all the decent reg savers (TSB, Santander, HSBC, F Direct, Lloyds and HSBC).

No M&S or Nationwide? Much more 'decent' than TSB, Santa, Lloyds.

Also no COOP or Barclays, for their Reward payments? Better value than Halifax now.

chocomonsta wrote: »

Is there any point in keeping:
Tesco, (need to find 3 D/D and cycle £750 to earn £7.50 monthly)
Bank of Scotland, (I need to find 2 DD to earn £6.25 monthly)
Halifax, this one - can I switch to Natwest to earn a switching bonus though I have already earned £125 Natwest switching bonus? I have 3 Halifax accounts but not worth it now to only earn £2 a month reward.

If you have the necessary DDs, I'd keep the Tesco ones, definitely. Better value than most other current accounts, from an interest point of view. Mind you, it might not last much longer. We'll see. Personally, I have kept my Halifax accounts as they effectively pay for the Christmas wine each year, and I also have kept 1 of originally 3 BOS accounts because I use it as a feeder for various regular savers. It's getting a bit tedious though.

You can switch again to Natwest but they won't pay you a switching bonus again if you already had one since sometime in 2017.

EachPenny · 12 January 2019 at 4:08PM

chocomonsta wrote: »

I have a number of accounts with different banks and I am doing a bit of spring cleaning. I am checking in with you to see if I am missing a trick before I close a couple of accounts.

Do you need to close the accounts? Is there something you are planning to do which you can only do if you have fewer accounts?

If not, consider just making the accounts 'rest' for a bit - reduce the balance down to £1 or so and cancel/move all the payments to/from the account. Switch to paperless statements (if not already) and put any debit cards safely away in a drawer.

You might want to occasionally pay a small amount of money into the account (and withdraw it again) just to have some minimal activity, but other than that you don't really need to do anything to keep a current account going.

The benefits of doing so are you have a source of accounts for any future switching offers (without having to open new 'donor' accounts) and you have options in case the current benefits and perks change. None of us can predict which accounts will have further benefit reductions that might make one of the others more attractive than they look today.

Also, there are no guarantees that you will be eligible for the same accounts and/or the same number of each kind in future. E.g. a new limit of one per customer might be imposed by one or more of the banks which currently allow multiples - TSB Classic Plus being an example of where that has happened in the past.

chocomonsta · 12 January 2019 at 4:42PM

colsten wrote: »

No M&S or Nationwide? Much more 'decent' than TSB, Santa, Lloyds. oops yes, forgot to put those on the list, I do have M&S, and Nationwide.

Also no COOP or Barclays, for their Reward payments? Better value than Halifax now. I got rid of the COOP, and have a Barclays but not using it for reward as don't have enough DDs...…….hmmmm it used to be so much easier before the banks started demanding all the DDs!

If you have the necessary DDs, I'd keep the Tesco ones, definitely. Better value than most other current accounts, from an interest point of view. Mind you, it might not last much longer. We'll see. Personally, I have kept my Halifax accounts as they effectively pay for the Christmas wine each year, and I also have kept 1 of originally 3 BOS accounts because I use it as a feeder for various regular savers. It's getting a bit tedious though.
it is
You can switch again to Natwest but they won't pay you a switching bonus again if you already had one since sometime in 2017.

ok, thought so thanks Colsten

chocomonsta · 12 January 2019 at 4:48PM

I do have several credit cards not being used. Is it possible to have minimum payments DDs set up from the different bank to the same card? That could help with DD requirements if it is possible, and then I could ensure a small spend on each card on a monthly basis?

thanks again for replies so far.

Looking at it on paper, all those interest payments add up over several accounts. I can see I am going to have to put a little more effort in

chocomonsta · 12 January 2019 at 4:51PM

gt94sss2 wrote: »

No. The Natwest T&C exclude you from their current switching offer if you have claimed previously.

Thanks, I thought it was too good to be true, I only read the bits that favoured me!

colsten · 12 January 2019 at 5:52PM

chocomonsta wrote: »

I do have several credit cards not being used. Is it possible to have minimum payments DDs set up from the different bank to the same card?

Afraid, you can't. But you could have several CCs that you pay off in full each month, and on each of which you spend a tenner a month or so. Must be careful that you spend enough that they actually do collect the DD - - I seem to remember that some don't if you spend less than £5 a month.

If you have a smartphone, using something like ApplePay could help with all the cards, so you don't have to physically carry them. I think we can have up to 6 cards registered on the phone.

You can also get away with a single mandate on some accounts. E.g. from memory, you can satisfy the COOP requirements by making the DD a weekly payment (except perhaps in February, not sure). Search for the thread where people discuss DDs.

Zero_Sum · 12 January 2019 at 9:45PM

chocomonsta wrote: »

I do have several credit cards not being used. Is it possible to have minimum payments DDs set up from the different bank to the same card? That could help with DD requirements if it is possible, and then I could ensure a small spend on each card on a monthly basis?

thanks again for replies so far.

Looking at it on paper, all those interest payments add up over several accounts. I can see I am going to have to put a little more effort in

Post office savings accounts allow DD's to be set weekly to fund accounts which count as 4 DD's from a single mandate

No_6 · 12 January 2019 at 10:00PM

@ choco….
you have been on this site for 10 years ?
why do you need dd,s to feed Tesco ?

have 3 accounts with them and NO DD's.
so were you asleep in the last 10 years

chocomonsta · 12 January 2019 at 10:34PM

No_6 wrote: »

@ choco….
you have been on this site for 10 years ?
why do you need dd,s to feed Tesco ?

have 3 accounts with them and NO DD's.
so were you asleep in the last 10 years

Don’t I?
I have had accounts for ages, many years. I will check 👍
I used to b so on it in the early days and clearly have been snoozing recently if I have missed that?

advice re accounts

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